Star Trail Photography - David Lee

This series of photographs was taken on March 14, 1999 on a
field beside the Pearson College Observatory in Metchosin, BC.
While waiting to photograph Comet Linear as it approached the
celestial pole the night offered a perfect opportunity to do the
simplest form of astrophotography. Time exposures on high speed
film is a perfect introduction to photographing the night sky.
Without the need for expensive clock drives and telescopes this
is a relatively inexpensive way to bring back some souvenirs of
the night sky. It's also a wonderful way of extending what you
can see, the film recording much more than you can see with your
naked eye. I often take snapshots of the night sky and review
them later on with a star atlas looking for future objects to
observe. For a beginner this can be a good method for reviewing
the shape of the constellations. With all the attention on CCD
imaging these days film often gets forgotten, but there still
remains a certain charm to the wide fields and simplicity of the
method.

Many good books are available on astrophotography, some classics
and some new arrivals. Check out your local bookstore in the
astronomy section or the public library. Some recommended books
follow:

Nightwatch - Terence Dickinson : A classic
with a good chapter on photographing the night sky.

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide - Terence Dickinson
& Alan Dyer : Many of us were introduced to astronomy
with this book, great section on astrophotography.

Splendors of the Universe - Terence Dickinson &
Jack Newton : A recent offering from two recognized masters
of astroimaging.This book is dedicated to astrophotography. An
excellent selection for both film and CCD based imaging.

Observer's Handbook Astrophotography - An Introduction
- H.J.P. Arnold : Another book dedicated to astrophotography.
Good section on projects.

If you can't get enough of astrophotography there are some atlases
which are photographically based:

The Photographic Atlas of the Stars - H.J.P. Arnold,
P. Doherty and P. Moore : A great atlas of the constellations
from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Using modest equipment and a dark site one can capture beautiful
images of the night sky. With a camera that is capable of time
exposures, high speed film and a tripod photographs of the constellations
are possible with exposures shorter than a 1 minute. This photograph
was taken with a wideangle lens at f/2.8 for 45 seconds. The
film was Fujicolor Super G 800. Visible in view is the constellation
of Orion and the Hyades.

By extending the exposure the stars will start to trail indicating
the apparent motion of the stars about the celestial pole. The
other thing you will notice is the color of the stars will be
very visible. Notice the orange colour of both Betelgeuse and
Aldebaran and the stark white of Procyon and Sirius. Exposure
was approximately 10 minutes.

By further extending the exposure, this one was approximately
25 minutes, the trails become longer. Unfortunately light pollution
usually steps in at this point introducing skyglow. Much of the
skyglow has been removed from these images during the digital
processing of the images. The skyglow appears as a strong orange
glow. This is the advantage of a dark site. In a city setting
skyglow would have set in within 8 minutes.

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is dedicated
to the promotion of astronomy and its related sciences; we espouse the
scientific method, and support dissemination of discoveries and
theories based on that well-tested method.